1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of electronic devices and equipment used in the processing of financial and security transactions using existing magnetic cards (such as credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, access cards, driver's licenses, etc.) having information recorded on a stripe recording medium and more particularly, to an insertable and removable reader head protection device for a magnetic stripe reader.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In twenty-first century America, the vast majority of businesses must accept credit and/or debit cards to accommodate the expectations of their paying customers and to remain competitive. While customers pay the same price for goods or services whether they use cash, credit or debit, certain types of payment represent additional costs to merchants. For example, it is well known that merchants must pay a processing fee each time that a credit card is used to make a purchase. Merchants also must acquire equipment to process credit or debit card purchases. Generally referred to as point of sale (POS) terminals, this equipment can perform a variety of functions depending on the needs of a particular business. All POS terminals, regardless of design and business-specific functions, must have a device with ferromagnetic material that can read the magnetic stripes on credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, access cards, driver's licenses, and other types of cards required for various types of transactions. This device, which may be external to the POS terminal or may be integrally attached to the POS terminal, is referred to as a magnetic stripe reader or MSR.
Although MSR's come in various designs, including swipe, insert, and motorized MSR's, they all function the same way. The MSR is configured with a small “head”—approximately ¼ of an inch—that reads the card's magnetic stripe. A magnetic stripe card has a magnetic stripe (magstripe) along one edge which contains coded data that is encoded into one or more of three tracks, each of which is used for different purposes, as specified by ANSI/ISO standards. The magstripe is positioned so that as it is moved across the MSR reader head the data coded into the magstripe is decoded by the MSR.
In the swipe-type MSR, the user fits the magnetic stripe card into a narrow card swipe track of the MSR and slides the card in a particular direction. The reader head is located on the side of the card swipe track and “reads” or decodes the data from one or more tracks of the card's magnetic stripe. Conventionally, on MSR's this reader head is enclosed within the card swipe track, which cannot be opened by the merchant who has purchased or rented the POS terminal and its corresponding MSR. The insert-type MSR functions in a similar manner, with the totality of the card being inserted into the MSR, positioned so that the magnetic stripe can be read by the head of the MSR. As in the swipe-type MSR, the head is enclosed and cannot be opened by the merchant. The movement of the card, either in the swipe or insert type MSR may additionally be motorized.
As cards are repeatedly swiped through the card swipe track to close out sales or for other transactions, the card swipe track—and, more importantly, the reader head inside the card swipe track—becomes dirty. In order to maintain MSR's at top performance levels (i.e., to avoid reader failures and machine malfunctions), they must be cleaned regularly, with the frequency of cleaning generally proportional to the frequency of usage of the MSR. Unfortunately, due to the narrowness of the space in the card swipe track that must be cleaned, this currently necessitates the purchase of disposable magstripe cleaning cards, increasing the cost to the merchant. There are currently several different kinds of disposable magstripe reader cleaning cards available on the market. These cleaning cards are the same size and shape as a credit card and typically come pre-saturated and individually packaged. They clean the reader head and card swipe track, as well as any frequent contact points, removing dirt and oil buildup and any other contamination deposits in the machines. Most of these cleaning cards may be used in all types of machines including swipe, insert, and motorized readers.
However, there are several problems with these cleaning cards that result in higher costs for merchants. First, these cleaning cards are limited to one-time use only. For example, such currently available cleaning cards such as the Happ Mag Stripe Reader Cleaning Card and KIC Cleaning Card must be disposed of after one use. Having to purchase these cleaning cards routinely can be costly for merchants. Larger businesses that operate numerous locations and that contain hundreds or thousands of POS terminals experience very high costs for these disposable cleaning cards. Additionally, if the MSR head and card swipe track are very dirty, more than one disposable card may need to be required to clean a single card swipe track, increasing expenses.
Second, the cleaning cards often do not fully clean the reader head and, therefore, fail to prevent the types of machine malfunctions for which they are intended. The reason for this failure is due to the nature of the head itself. As a user slides a card through one type of MSR's card swipe track, the card will trigger the reader head which is on a small spring system. The reader head then moves with the card as it is swiped in order to read accurately the information on that card's magnetic stripe. When a merchant slides a cleaning card through the card swipe track, the reader head reacts the same way—it moves with the cleaning card. The movement of the reader head as the cleaning card passes over it ensures that the head will not be fully cleaned (for better removal of the dirt, grease or grime that builds up on the head, the head would need to remain in place so that some friction or abrasion would occur). The failure of the cleaning card to completely clean the head ultimately results in additional costs to merchants and other users of MSR's in the form of service costs. Typically, when the service worker is called to “repair” an MSR that is not working properly, the “repair” is nothing more than a full cleaning of the head. The service worker is able to open the card swipe track on the MSR, which give him full access to the head. The worker then simply cleans the head in a complete manner—something that the cleaning card is unable to do.
It would be advantageous to provide a device that protected the MSR head from dust, dirt, grease or any other substance likely to impede the reader's functioning, but could be easily removed and cleaned by the merchant. It would also be advantageous if this removable MSR head protection device could be utilized in both new MSR designs and in existing magnetic stripe readers, as well as with swipe-type MSR's, insert-type MSR's, manual swipe MSR's, and motorized swipe MSR's. Thus the merchant would not have to purchase disposable cleaning cards. Additionally, merchants would avoid the costs of having to call service workers to clean/repair MSR's that are not working properly due to the failure of the cleaning cards. Furthermore, with a device that could be used with existing MSR models, merchants could maximize cost savings, for example by avoiding having to purchase or rent new equipment plus by reducing cleaning card and service costs on their existing systems.
Accordingly, there is an established need for an efficient reader head protection device that is readily insertable and removable and cleanable, that provides shielding and protection to the reader head, that is usable with a variety of currently existing and future designs of MSR's, and that reduces expenditures for MSR cleaning cards and for MSR service costs.